Spectrum of the seas: Change of Flag and Registry

[SummmerInKefalonia]

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5851240/mmsi:210563000/imo:9778856/vessel:SPECTRUM_OF_THE_SEAS

 

Does anyone knows the reason that Spectrum of the seas flag was changed to Cyprus and port of registry Limassol?

On the ship the new flag has already been raised.

[twangster]

At times EU policy and rules have motivated shipping companies to have at least one vessel registered in the EU.   At one point Brilliance was flagged different IIRC.  Perhaps there is a tax or policy reason related to operating within the EU.  

 

It doesn't matter that the token ship isn't sailing in the EU, if I'm not mistaken all it took was one ship in the fleet to make a difference. 

[Ourusualbeach]

44 minutes ago, twangster said:

At one point Brilliance was flagged different IIRC.  Perhaps there is a tax or policy reason related to operating within the EU.  

Yes, and her ownership was set up as a completely different from the rest of the ships as well.  It all had to do with tax implications from where she spent the majority of her time sailing from.

[chengkp75]

34 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Yes, and her ownership was set up as a completely different from the rest of the ships as well.  It all had to do with tax implications from where she spent the majority of her time sailing from.

How was the ownership different?  Most shipping companies create individual subsidiaries that own only one or two ships, to limit liability.  I haven't checked every RCI ship, but having looked at a couple, they are all owned singly.  It is interesting that the DNV ship register (her class society) still shows Spectrum as being Bahamian flag, though they may not have updated yet, though there are quite a few documents that need to be reissued when a ship reflags.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

How was the ownership different?  Most shipping companies create individual subsidiaries that own only one or two ships, to limit liability.  I haven't checked every RCI ship, but having looked at a couple, they are all owned singly.  It is interesting that the DNV ship register (her class society) still shows Spectrum as being Bahamian flag, though they may not have updated yet, though there are quite a few documents that need to be reissued when a ship reflags.

It was owned by a UK based company

[smokeybandit]

They are flags of convenience for a reason. I assume it became more convenient to switch registration to a European country.

[chengkp75]

15 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It was owned by a UK based company

This is not unusual.  For example, Oasis, which is Bahamian flag, is owned by Oasis of the Seas, Inc, which is incorporated in Liberia.   Looking at a 2020 SEC filing of subsidiaries of RCI, nearly every ship is owned singly by a different corporation, most all are Bahamian flag, but the corporations are Liberian.  Was Brilliance sailing UK cruises at the time, or EU cruises?

 

I am not aware of any tax breaks for ships that are not EU flagged, that would be gained by having another ship that is EU flagged.

7 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

They are flags of convenience for a reason. I assume it became more convenient to switch registration to a European country.

The major advantage would be in cabotage laws, where certain voyages are restricted to EU flagged vessels.

[orville99]

24 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It was owned by a UK based company

The UK "company" was a wholly owned shell company subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Inc.

Edited January 22, 2023 by orville99

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

This is not unusual.  For example, Oasis, which is Bahamian flag, is owned by Oasis of the Seas, Inc, which is incorporated in Liberia.   Looking at a 2020 SEC filing of subsidiaries of RCI, nearly every ship is owned singly by a different corporation, most all are Bahamian flag, but the corporations are Liberian.  Was Brilliance sailing UK cruises at the time, or EU cruises?

 

I am not aware of any tax breaks for ships that are not EU flagged, that would be gained by having another ship that is EU flagged.

The major advantage would be in cabotage laws, where certain voyages are restricted to EU flagged vessels.

What's different was it was the only one set up under a UK company vs all the others having flags of convenience and countries with favorable tax laws.  IIRC she was doing a lot of UK sailings at the time.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Ourusualbeach

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, orville99 said:

The UK "company" was a wholly owned shell company subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Inc.

Yes just as all the others were.

[chengkp75]

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

What's different was it was the only one set up under a UK company vs all the others having flags of convenience and countries with favorable tax laws.  IIRC she was doing a lot of UK sailings at the time.

The UK, while not having "cabotage" laws, per se, have laws that regulate the domestic carriage of goods and passengers by sea to essentially restrict them to UK owned and flagged vessels, so this makes sense, if they wanted to do cruises that only called at UK ports.  The EU (while I know that the UK is no longer part of the EU) also has laws that regulate transport within one member state to only ships of a member state.

 

Having looked up Cypress registry, the owner must be more than 50% Cypress, or EU, ownership, so Spectrum must have been transferred to a new ownership company, based somewhere in the EU.  Again, not certain of any advantage other than cabotage, but with the ship sailing in Asia, that doesn't make sense.  They would have to have paid for new incorporation documents, etc, as well as the inspections and documentation needed to change flag, and to have the class documents changed for the new flag.

[SummmerInKefalonia]

Maybe we see it in the Med in 2024.

Rhapsody of the seas voyages for 2024 summer season were not revealed along with the other european voyages for a reason. Maybe this is the reason afterall.

 

[SummmerInKefalonia]

https://www.financialmirror.com/2023/01/23/spectrum-of-the-seas-transfers-to-cyprus-flag/?fbclid=IwAR0eBptkiK4SuQ-XcRwRtTK7GiPVYunbr44sNhdAu35uNjfto1-tspWbPpc